Notes from over there

Garry Trudeau, proving once more that he is a much better person and American than our lousy lousy president has provided a space on his webpage for military personnel to write about their experiences overseas.

Youtube not getting so sucky

According to this article on E Online it looks like a bunch of videos that Viacom had ordered yanked from Youtube are now back on. I guess they are only not allowing full-length episodes of their shows, which makes sense. I hope they realized that one of the reasons Stephen Colobert is so popular is due to sites like Youtube that allow people to experience a quip he may have said the previous evening and then share that clip with friends and so on and so on. If the Republicans can use the internet in an intelligent way you would hope a large media corporation would too.

On that note I found the following video during lunch and I just can't express how much Stephen Colbert makes me laugh. Did you know that Stephen Hawking was an a-hole.

Wallowing in the mud

This stance isn't nearly as disgusting as when he implied that electing Democrats could create a smokin gun that is a mushroom cloud but he wants to be sure to let you know that the terrorists want you to vote Democrat. What a slime ball: "Vice-President Dick Cheney said today the increase of violence in Iraq is linked with efforts to influence the outcome of next week's elections in which Republicans are struggling to keep control of Congress.
"It's my belief that they're very sensitive of the fact that we've got an election scheduled and they can get on the websites like anybody else," Mr Cheney said.

He said al-Qaida and other elements were trying to "break the will of the American people" because "they think we don't have the stomach for the fight long-term."

Asked if the attacks were timed to influence the US elections, Mr Cheney said, "That's my belief.""

Make it Stop

You know, I don't really mind John Mellencamp writing a song for Chevrolet but is it really necessary to run the song every ten minutes during Sunday football? I'm not in the market for a new car but if I was I sure as hell wouldn't buy a Chevy even if they had the car I wanted. Please, enough. Give me some peace.

Camille Pagilia back in the house

I don't know how familiar both my readers are with Camille Paglia. If you've been checking this blog for more than a year I am sure you may have followed a link or two to something she has said. Any time Paglia is speaking about our country's politics and culture it's worth your time. Everything she says you may not agree with but you can't say what she says isn't thoughtful and intelligent. She was recently interviewed by Salon.com I have included a quote about Rice and Cheney and linked to the interview at the end.

"Every feminist who wants to smash the glass ceiling should realize she has a stake in Condi Rice's success. Rice is a brilliant woman, but diplomacy is an art. Preaching in steely tones sends the wrong message. This administration lacks deftness in international relations. Worst of the lot is Dick Cheney, with his lumpish provincialism. What a narrow, limited mind! His geopolitics is a vintage-1870s version of frontier Americanism, but he managed to impose it on the over-credulous new president when this Bush took office. It's all so simple to them: The majority of Iraqis and Iranians want peace and modernization, so let's impose democracy at the barrel of a gun. But what ignorance of history: The mass of the population always want to live their own lives; change is always driven by small, committed groups of ideologues and fanatics -- even in our own revolution. Representative democracy is a great ideal, but major shifts are rarely achieved by majority rule, which prefers the status quo."

Lock 'em up

I've said some pretty strong things over the years about Bush and Cheney and I stand by them all. I have yet to call them criminals. Those days are over. Check out this quote from an interview Cheney did two days ago:

"Q: Would you agree a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: It's a no-brainer for me, but for a while there, I was criticized as being the Vice President "for torture." We don't torture. That's not what we're involved in. We live up to our obligations in international treaties that we're party to and so forth. But the fact is, you can have a fairly robust interrogation program without torture, and we need to be able to do that.

And thanks to the leadership of the President now, and the action of the Congress, we have that authority, and we are able to continue to program."

These guys torture people. Torture is illegal and torture doesn't work. Not only are Bush and Cheney criminals, they are, as Trudeau said, willfully ignorant. I heard Nancy Peolosi say on 60 Minutes that if she becomes speaker of the house there will not be investigations into this administration. I say to hell with that. Investigate these scumbags and get them out of office. They are a disgrace.

How bad is Dick Cheney?

"Far more interesting is Isikoff and Corn's exploration of the mental world that the administration inhabits. They recount that in December 2001, Scooter Libby read aloud to a visiting journalist a famous passage from Winston Churchill's memoirs about being named prime minister: ''I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial.'' Libby declared that these words could be applied to Cheney after Sept. 11. Hubris? Megalomania may be more like it."

That's what has always driven me crazy about the Bush people: their use of Churchillian language. Without the presence of a real international threat they do what they can to create fear in the public and then they attempt to orate like Churchill when they pledge to meet this threat. To me they fail utterly but I guess they're good enough to fool about half the people most of the time.

Garry Trudeau on Bush

"I think he is smart but willfully ignorant, and he uses his ignorance for strategic advantage, which is appalling. He substitutes belief for thought. It protects him from self doubt."

Shuttle liftoff pictures taken from outer space

These are the cooolest pictures I have seen in a while

Politicians are scared of Colbert

Sounds to me they are more scared of being asked real questions and it's sad that only someone on a fake news show does it consistantly.